It’s Shabeh Yalda – a night where we spend time with our loved ones, eating, drinking – and remembering to enjoy life. This is how Saaghi and I plan to celebrate Shabeh Yalda tonight – the longest night of the year –

Really the best way to spend any night: stuffing our faces with fessenjoon. YUM.

All through college, all anyone ever told me was that my 20’s were going to be the best years of my life. The years spent enjoying everything that is available to me, every opportunity, every change, and positive outcome. My 20’s were defined for me as the best that life was ever going to give me.

And that’s how I always imagined it would be. I expected to graduate from college and jump into a world of possibility, a world of hope and opportunity… where nothing felt out of reach.

I was determined. I was excited for all the different things I would get to experience only because I was finally in my 20’s — the infamous decade where I get to be exactly who I want to be. And frankly, it sounded easy. I felt like I would graduate and instantly, I’d be exactly where I wanted to be in my life.

And then I finally graduated from college and instead of entering a world of possibilities… I was hit with confusion and fear.

Do I move home? Do I take this job that has nothing to do with what I want? What will my parents say if I get an unpaid internship?